Okay, so Ozzy loves women and children. However, he's very selective of what men he likes. Sometimes he loves them right off the bat, sometimes he acts like a complete idiot. (Runs up, sniffs, backs off, barks, hides behind me)....
I haven't noticed which qualities he doesn't like in men, he's just very particular.

Now most of the time, I can tell them to leave him alone, ignore him, whatever.
Well, tonight I went to pick up my mom from her friend's party. I took Ozzy with me, not thinking I'd have to get out of the car.
Well, she didn't want to leave quite yet, so we went and hung out for a bit.

One of the guys (drunk) picked him up and held Ozzy right to his face. I could see Ozzy was uncomfortable and nervous. I was afraid Ozzy would bite him in the face. Of course I don't think he would do that, but I don't ever want to assume that he WON'T.
I was telling the guy that was holding him that he was uncomfortable with men and asked for him to put him down. He said, "Nah, look at him! He likes me!" (Because Ozzy was staring at him intently- not out of happiness)!
I quickly realized I wasn't going to get anywhere with trying to get a drunken guy to put him down, so I had Ozzy focus on me - or tried, anyway.

What can I do if a situation like this ever happens again? Obviously my first mistake was taking him around a bunch of drunk people, but I'm sure it won't be the last time someone Ozzy doesn't like tries to make him like them....

Mind you, the guy is a family friend, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed so civil with a drunk guy holding my dog.

This might be the same depending on how you look at it. When ever im out with Kai people come up and stroke him with out even asking first. Kai doesnt really mind unless theres more then 1 stroking him. If that happenes i simply tell them to wait till the other persons finished stroking kai.

In your situation you could just be straight. Its your dog. i think you could of just asked to put ozzy down. Mind me he probably wouldnt remember it the next day

In a party type of situation, I think I would just leave my dog in the vehicle providing the outside temperature was ok & it wasn't going to be very long. If the person I was there to pick up was not ready to leave for some time, I'd go home and come back later or tell them to take a cab. Drunk people do stupid things, I would avoid letting my dog interact with them if possible.

I think if I yanked him out of the guy's hands, that would have freaked him out even more.

I was thinking about leaving him in the car, but I had no idea how long I had to wait (wound up being 30-45 minutes). I drove half an hour one way to go pick them up, so I didn't want to waste another half hour driving back, then back to go get them again, then back home AGAIN.

it should have never have gotten to that point -- dog on lead , watch surroundings and be proactive . This way the dog does not get injured . The drunk guy could have hurled the dog across the room ! dropped him to the floor .

Yeah, my dogs are always tightly controlled when they have to be around drunk people--because of the drunk people, not the dogs! I'd definitely be sure to keep a tighter hold on him like you said.

In general when it comes to people handling your dogs without your permission, you might want to try to be more assertive. I would not have hesitated to make a scene if I had to in order to get the guy to put my dog down (and have done it before). Of course it might get you branded the crazy dog person (I am), but I'd rather people think I'm an obnoxious animal person than have my dog bite someone and get me sued/possibly jeopardize my dog's life/scar someone for life when they probably meant well/etc.

My relatively tactful response to the "It's okay, he likes me!" is a firm, "I don't care if he likes you, he is my dog and I do not want you doing that." If they're really insisting on a reason and you're not comfortable just insisting right back that they put the dog down, you can make up a reason...I used to say, "We're in training for such-and-such (search and rescue, agility, whatever) and that sort of socialization can mess up our training." It doesn't have to be true, as most people who know enough to call BS will also know enough to respect your request. Or I made up a medical reason--"He has arthritis/a pulled muscle in his back and picking him up can hurt him," might be a good one for that. But in my experience, that just opens you up to more arguing. Like I said, I just insist that the dog is my dog and I, not them, get to decide what is appropriate handling.

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